5 Things
by BetterThanRevenge101
Summary: Excerpt 4/4:It was two people, caught in the desperation of the moment, the desperation of war and losing each other. It was two people feeling alive, at least for the moment. An untold story, fluffy. Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1 - Prologue

Disclaimer:

I don't own the characters or the thing about storming the palace.

* * *

This was it.

The day that she dreaded about for half a year.

They were going to storm the titan's palace. Tomorrow.

It was going to be hard, grey clouds surrounded the palace. It might be poison or might not.

But it didn't matter. What was done was done.

At least everyone knew that they had good intentions. They were fighting this war for the people of new Rome, and she will do anything to save the city.

She was wearing a mask of fearlessness, even though she was quivering like a little girl. No one was sure they were going to make it.

In fact, they probably weren't going to make it.

So she wakes up and writes a bucket list of five things to do today. She is not going to deny the pleasures of enjoying the simplest things.

1. Go stargazing. Preferably with company.

2. Take a break of two hours-it was the biggest break she had ever gotten-and do whatever she wants.

3. Go to that new coffee shop down the street. (She never had any time to do that)

4. Buy a bag of jellybeans and eat them. (Don't judge, it wasn't her fault that jellybeans were her weakness!)

5. Get her first kiss. Preferably from... him.

(It made her wince to write that down)

* * *

AN: Kind of Short, but this is kind of like the checklist thing. So yeah.

PEACE!

(as you can see, I'm kind of ecstatic right now, 'cause school's going to be over in… *drumroll FRIDAY!)


	2. Chapter 2 - Of Coffee and Jellybeans

**Disclaimer:**

**I don't own the characters. PEACE!**

**(I'm just lazy today, so yeah.)**

**5 Things**

o.O.o

Since she actually needed some coffee, she walked down the pretty tiles of new Rome and took a turn. There it was, in all its glory. She walked in, the bell dangling in the wooden door and smelled the welcoming aroma of coffee beans.

It was a small cozy place, with leather chairs and a bookshelf.

"Hello, what can I do for you today? "Asked the guy behind the counter. He had a forced smile on, which was completely understandable but she was grinning like there was no tomorrow.

Which was partially true.

She looked up at the menu above the counter and ordered.

"I'll have the iced caramel coffee, medium please."

As the machinery hummed, she ran her hand through the numerous books on the sleek mahogany shelf. Her hand stopped when she lingered over her favorite book, the art of war but she decided today was not for reading about horrible things. Instead, she let her hand wander to a book bound in blue.

The fault in our stars.

The title sounds nice. She thought. She read the first sentence and knew she had fallen for it, hook, line and sinker.

She felt herself melt into the book, and too soon, her coffee arrived.

She made a mental note to herself to buy that book while saying "Thank you," over her shoulder as she walked out of the store.

She made her way towards the brightly colored candy store and said good morning to the clerk. She bought a pack of jellybeans.

Then she went to her final destination. The bookshop.

It was a place crowded with books, some brand new and some that dated back to ancient roman times.

Luckily everything was in Latin, so she had no problem reading it.

She looked for a book in blue with the words the fault in our stars, and walked up to the cashier and bought it. She thanked the clerk and walked back to her villa. She poured the jellybeans in a black bowl, and started to eat it while drinking her coffee.

Most people would find jellybeans and coffee disgusting, but Reyna thought jellybeans went with everything, as long as it wasn't the yellow ones.

But a certain someone with blond hair and blue eye (remind you of someone) barged into her sitting room.

"Rey, you can't just eat jellybeans for your living." said Jason while sighing.

She raised one of her eyebrows and smiled, as if daring him to challenge her. "Oh really?"

"Yes really."

"Well then, congratulations to you." she didn't want a fight when it was the day before theme attack. Better to let people win. "Look, if you want the jellybeans, then just eat it, as long as it'd the yellow ones.

"What flavor are they?" He asked while sitting on the cushioned bronze seat next to her.

"Buttered popcorn."

"I guess I'll try it."

Then Reyna warned him not eat it, but he didn't listen. He was already chewing it.

"It's not that bad," he said to Reyna "for reals." And nodded his head.

Reyna had to stifle a laugh.

Then after a while of chewing, his eyes suddenly widened as he tasted the after-effects of the evil jellybean. He put on a gross face.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Tissue and water, TISSUE AND WATER!" by the end of the sentence, he was yelling.

So Reyna did the logical thing. She got him tissue and water.

He spit into the tissue, said ew, then drank water and said ew again.

"I bet you regret not following my advice, huh"

"No one shall't doubt thee"

Reyna shook her head in (playful) disapproval, and checked two things of her list, which was conveniently sitting on the elegant marble table in front of her.

Jellybeans? Check.

Coffee? Check.

Two down, three to go.

o.O.o

**AN: The jellybean thing was based from experience. I was Reyna in that situation. The "Jason" spit it into a trash can. I also probably did more research on this chapter than I should have. :)**


	3. Chapter 3 - That stupid book

Disclaimer:

Don't own the characters, or the titan war. I do own the main plot though. PEACE!

¡™£¢∞§¶•ªº–≠œ∑´®†¥¨ˆøπ"'«åß∂ƒ©˙∆˚¬…æ÷≥≤µ˜∫√ç≈Ω

That stupid book.

Ω Ω Ω

Chapter 3

ΩΩΩ

She stared at the battle map on her table in her, next to her beloved (and new) pack of jellybeans.

"Praetor Reyna, remember the spy we sent to the mountain yesterday?" HE scared her, but she turned around. No, she did not, but she nodded anyways.

"I take that it was successful" She said.

"Yes, and, well, it turns out the thing surrounding the mountain is the mist."

"Really? Like The Mist?"

"Yes." Replied Bobby.

"That's good news then,"

"Yes, but that's not it. There's only one way in, and one way out. It's the front entrance. Brady – who was the spy – sketched it out."

Bobby pointed to the rough sketch and said, "there are Greek columns in the interior, and the ceiling's really tall, which means that the door is too." He pointed to the big square on the paper, "We can have Jason flying in with two people when the enemy is distracted with the frontal assault and he and the person can deal with the titans, or he could fly one person over and over so there would be a group dealing with the titans. Do you agree Praetor Reyna?"

That was what happened for the rest of the day, discussing strategies and weaknesses in the castle. Boring senate meetings where Octavian kept on interrupting with his "auguries" which meant basically vetoing any idea that he didn't like.

She barely remembered the to-do list.

She barely saw her co-praetor too, mostly because she was too caught up to notice him. After that, she polished and sharpened her weapons, (there goes her no-violence rule) and brutally attacked her tree in her garden with newly polished and sharpened weapons.

She checked her will for any mistakes, or things that could confuse people when finally, Jason interrupted her busy day.

"You do know you're working too hard, right?" said Jason.

"Nope." She replied, "But what do you expect? There is going to be a war tomorrow, and I'm not going to fret over my work levels."

She looked up and saw him leaning against the doorframe, or whatever people called ancient roman-styled doorframes.

There was a beat of silence, then she said, "What do you want Grace?"

"You need a break."

She was in the middle of no – her usual response - but she remembered that she promised herself that she was going to take an hour off – that morning break was something she did every morning – so she accepted, after checking that it was 5 o'clock which meant after that was dinner.

"Fine." She said, in what she hoped what was a reluctant voice.

Jason raised his eyebrows. It wasn't everyday she accepted an invitation of his to 'chillax'.

That was when her day had _really_ started.

She was on the couch, finishing up the latin version of the fault in our stars with her legs on the arm of the sofa, and Jason was on the floor next to her (Reyna pushed him off the couch so she could sit there) experimenting with his weird and freaky electricity powers, which meant he was trying to get something to float without touching it. It failed, obviously.

Then she started sobbing (without crying, which kind of defeats the purpose of sobbing) once she got to the sad part.

They were the sort that were gut wrenching, and heart-breaking, so it wasn't surprising that Jason poked her in the stomach (he knew she was ticklish there) and asked what was wrong.

"It's just – THE FEELS!"

She clutched the book on top of her chest and curled up around it.

"Calm down, crazy person," said Jason, trying to get her to stop crying, but to no avail.

All she did was (dry) cry even harder.

Eventually, she stopped. (daughters of war didn't cry much, even if it was fake) and finished the darn book. She threw it against the wall in frustration then kissed it. Then she put it on the floor and stamped her (bare) foot on it. Over and over again.

She picked it up, and miraculously, it wasn't damaged in the slightest way at all. Then she threw it against the wall, and repeated the process. In the middle of stamping her foot, Jason pinned both her arms behind her back.

In a normal situation, that would've never happened, but in this situation, she wasn't trying to escape. She was just trying to damage the book like how it... it damaged her heart.

"It's dinner." Said Jason matter-of-factly.

"Okay. Let's go then." She turned around and put a step forward until a thought came to her mind, and she stamped on the book one last time, then she left.

3 down, two to go.

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own anything besides the plot.

* * *

AN:

Sorry for the wait, but I've been working on three other projects. But this chapter's long than normal, so I hope it makes up for it. :)

UPDATED


	4. Chapter 4 - stars

**AN: LAST CHAPTER! **** I'm doing this first, in front of Swept Away so I can focus on it. Plus, Swept Away will have a few references to this. Who thinks I should I should stick to angst? There are a few quotes and references, if you pick them up, you get a virtual cookie! Good for you!**

**Word count: 1666…**

**Disclaimer: I probably forgot to put all of these in the chapters, but whatever. I don't own Percy Jackson & the Olympians. Or Camp Jupiter. **

They went to dinner, where she was very thankful that her bloodshot eyes that she got from (fake) crying had gone back to normal, and the "puffiness" was practically non-existent.

Dinner was full of nervous chatter.

_Battle nerves,_ she thought.

She had it too, kind of. She was her way of dealing with it. She was calm when she answered questions, and calm doing everything.

That particular dinner was a blur of questions and her calming down all the breakdowns (which were quite frequent) and Jason doing nothing except fussing over them and unintentionally making them panic even more by bringing up comments that he thought would help.

(Keyword: Thought)

Everyone was ashen faced and the vibe of nervousness was rubbing off on her, so she finished her mashed potatoes with gravy in a record time of fifteen minutes.

As you can see, she ate slowly. She knew legionnaires (centurions/praetors, whatever) who could eat at a leisurely place, and still be twice as fast as her even while she was at top speed. (*Cough, Jason, *cough)

She walked on the cobblestone, going back to her villa before breaking into a run. Knowing Jason, he would come soon after her. She opened the heavy front door, covered in bronze and flanked by columns as she kicked her shoes off impatiently.

She pulled the door closed, hearing the click of the lock as stripped her armor off, as well as the toga, leaving the SPQR shirt and jeans underneath. She set her things on the table.

She hated that thing. The toga, that is. Armor wasn't hate-able.

She ran into the garden and flung herself upon the green grass that looked gray in the moonlight. The garden was in the middle of the open atrium. Normally, it would be private, as in hers and hers only. But the villa was interconnected at the garden, a modern improvement, you could say. There were rooms surrounding the atrium, but there was a hole in the middle, containing a door in true Roman style.

You know, besides the fact that it's glass and you can drag curtains across it. But the sides were still wrapped in columns.

Reyna looked up at the starlit night, and thought about what would happen tomorrow.

"It's beautiful isn't? The moon and the stars?"

"Yes," she replied, "it is."

She didn't have to look to see who it was, since she memorized Jason's voice and not to mention the fact that only he could enter, unless she let someone in.

"You can sit down if you want,"

He did, and he lay next to Reyna. They both stared at the stars, entranced in their beauty. They could swear in court that they only did it for five minutes, but if it felt like eternity, it was their secret to keep.

They stared at the ever-growing collection of stars and somehow, the looming threat of death wasn't so scary anymore, it's sharp edges smoothed out.

"So, do you want to come see the stars with me?" Asked Jason, finally breaking the silence.

"That's the usual response people say," said Reyna, jokingly with a slight smile on her face.

"Well, I suppose that we're not very 'usual' aren't we?"

His question was met with a silence. Reyna didn't like admitting someone was right.

Finally, she said, "Yes, we're far from."

Reyna raised her hand and pointed towards the constellation that seemed out of place to her. Reyna told Jason that it was new. She spoke with the wonder of a child.

"It wasn't there before. I swear. It kind of looks like a hunter somehow." Said Reyna.

"Do you want to see it closer?"

She didn't say anything, which Jason interpreted as a yes.

He stood up and held a hand out for Reyna. She took it and he pulled her up. She tried to let go of his hand, but he kept a firm grip on her. She raised an eyebrow, but was met with a reassuring smile.

"What do you mean by come see the stars?" asked Reyna, eyes wide with curiosity and in that moment, it made her look like that young, innocent girl from Puerto Rico, the one who didn't know any war.

"You'll see," said Jason.

Reyna smiled.

There was a beat of silence, when she said "Jason, nothings happening." But then they started to rise up in the air.

She gasped in a mixture of surprise and delight. Then, she laughed like there was nothing in the world that wasn't fair, like there wasn't a war going on. Like she wasn't the daughter of Bellona and had blood on her hands.

"This is amazing Jason."

"And it's why you should trust me," replied Jason, in his ever-arrogant voice that had somehow, became endearing.

She was wonderstruck with the stars all around her, wrapping her in their black blankets. All she could do is nod as they rose in slow spirals.

When she finally found her voice, she asked, "when did you know that this… this flying thing could be done with two people?"

"A long time ago. I know I told everyone that I could only do it in necessary situations, but all I wanted was to not be treated like a horse, giving free rides to anybody…" He was smiling the whole time.

Reyna's gaze finally met Jason's eyes, and was wonderstruck by his beauty. Under the stars and the moon, his hair turned to the color of spun silver, and his eyes were too. His scar was more prominent than ever, but it made him seem more human, somehow, and less perfect. More… real. Which was better. **(AN: awkward)**

"Well, then, it wouldn't help if I told everyone then, would it?"

Jason laughed.

Jason took her other hand, the free one, and Reyna started dancing. She stayed calm because this moment was infinite, and she couldn't tell anyone how grateful she is for that little piece of infinity.

"Dancing?" Jason said, "On air? With no music? Sounds dangerous."

"I'm a dangerous girl,"

"That, I believe."

They waltzed around on the air, with Reyna's head on Jason's shoulder. They rose until they were high above the rooftops and trees, and in the cover of night, no one saw them. The only sign they'd been there was the absence of stars in their silhouette.

"It's not fair, you know. Teenagers and kids shouldn't have to be able to worry war and death. They shouldn't be holding swords and daggers, they should be holding wands pretending to be Harry Potter." A tear rolled down her cheek, the first time it ever happened.

"It's life, Reyna. It's ours." Jason put his hand on her face and used his thumb to wipe the tear away. He started to lean closer, and Reyna went still, then she remembered she probably looked like a statue, so she sighed, partly because she had to answer the statement that Jason made.

"It's just that…we're going to lead hundreds of people to battle, and there's a small, miniature chance of winning. I'll be leading people to their deaths. I'm…afraid, Jason."

Her confession lead to a pregnant pause, with their feet whirling around the open air, and both of them acting as one.

"Let's not think about bad things right now."

They danced some more, and burrowed themselves in the comfort of the night and their company and their dancing.

Reyna got tired, and when she said so, Jason jumped backwards.

She screamed.

"What are you doing?" She shouted.

"It's fun, I'll catch you."

"No way."

Jason gave her a knowing look. "It's the last day."

Cue the groan. Then she frowned at him. "FINE."

She pursed her lips, and braced herself for death. She closed her eyes, and jumped up and back. With some reluctance/hesitance.

She landed with an oof. The air felt like a pillow.

"How do you do that? Make it air soft?"

"I just…imagine it."

"Cool." She smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

Reyna was feeling childish, so she spread her arms and legs out. She was making an air angel.

"Oh my gosh Reyna, I seriously don't know you." Said Jason jokingly. He lifted his hand and covered his eyes. Then he started to make an air angel too.

_She says nothing at all, but simply stares upward at the dark sky and watches, with sad eyes, the slow dance of the infinite stars._

They were right above the patch of trees right now, and the leaves were a meter away from her.

Reyna was marveling at the 360º view when a streak of white light crossed the black canvas of the sky.

"It's a shooting star. What do you wish for?"

"That we'll win the war."

Reyna laughed quietly. She turned her head to face Jason's, and saw that we had done the same. Then she noticed that they were really close.

She started to move even closer, so they were centimeters away. She could hear her heart pounding.

Her eyes focused on his lips that looked grey in the starlight, and back up to his eyes, asking permission.

He closed in on the few centimeters, and kissed her.

It was innocent and gentle, and everything she imagined her first kiss to be like and more.

It was two people, caught in the desperation of the moment, the desperation of war and losing each other. It was two people feeling alive, at least for the moment.

_fin._


End file.
